(UCAN): Myanmar’s military junta, occupied the building complex of Christ the King Cathedral in Loikaw [Sunday Examiner, December 3] complex, forcing its bishop to flee, and aims to use the building as a shield in their war against resistance forces, Bishop Celso Ba Shwe said in a letter.
The junta, in its attempts to control the strategically important city of Loikaw, the capital of Kayah state, took over the complex on November 27. The complex houses the bishop’s residence, pastoral centre, clergy house and a clinic.
The bishop, resident priests and religious were forced to flee. At the time, the complex had 82 people, including 10 priests, 16 religious and some employees.
Some 50 soldiers came and occupied the cathedral complex “to make use of it as a shield” against the resistance forces said the letter, written by Bishop Shwe before he fled with his companions.
Currently, the cathedral is fully under the junta’s control. “At the moment no Church person is inside the cathedral complex. After the soldiers took over, it has been totally abandoned,” a Church source said on November 29.
The source explained that the junta assumes the resistance forces, like the Karenni, will not advance if they have to harm a religious place such as a cathedral. The Karenni force is believed to have Christians among its members, considering the significant Christian population of the state.
Kayah, Myanmar’s smallest state, also known as Karenni State, has some 300,000 people, some 45 percent of them Christians. Catholics number roughly 91,000.
Kayah is less than a five-hour car drive to the regime’s remote capital city of Naypyidaw. Losing it to the resistance forces could be seen as a threat. Kayah also borders Thailand and serves as a link between resistance strongholds, offering a potential launching pad for attacks on Naypyidaw, according to analysts.
Bishop Shwe and those who fled with him are currently at a remote parish. Some other priests of the diocese are in parishes in nearby Pekhon and Taunggyi dioceses in southern Shan state.
The junta attempted to take over the cathedral three times since November 11, when the resistance forces and the junta intensified fights.
“The bishop and the resident priests made an effort to convince the military generals of the importance of the religious sites and requested them to spare the place,” the bishop’s letter explained.
On the night of November 26, the junta shot at the pastoral centre, including the bishop’s residence, with 120mm artillery. The roof of the chapel was hit and the ceiling was destroyed.
“So, for the sake of safety” the bishop and the priests “decided to leave the pastoral centre,” the letter said.
The cathedral complex had been housing some 500 displaced people. But on November 11 another 800 people “began to flow into Christ the King’s Compound. Thus, the number of both old and new displaced persons exceeded 1,300.”
The bishop said in his letter that the junta has been using heavy weapons, fighter jets, armoured vehicles, ballistic missile systems and mobile defense systems. As a result, people in villages and towns are fleeing their homes and going to other states.
Those housed in the cathedral complex included “old and sick people, the paralysed, women, some young people.” Volunteers helped them to move to safer places before the junta took over, the bishop said.
